"We are standing on the road today."
Translation:हम आज सड़क पर खड़े हैं ।
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There is a typical order in which the extra "stuff" (adverbial stuff) occurs in a native-sounding Hindi sentence.
Time - Place - Manner
Time, e.g. "today", comes before Place, i.e. "on the road."
So, "We - Today - On the road - Stood - Are" sounds correct, but "We - On the road - Today - Stood - Are" sounds... weird.
Like, in English it sounds natural to say "I like your smile very much," but a French speaker with imperfect English will say, "I like very much your shirt" because he/she is transposing the syntax of French.
I don't think the Duo course teaches this aspect of Hindi, so you're kind of on your own to observe, through examples, how the native-sounding Hindi syntax goes :)
P.S. Time often sounds good before the subject (e.g. "We"), too. It just sounds unusual when you place it later in the sentence.
2647
What is wrong with "हम आज सड़क पर खड़े रहे हैं "?
I'm utterly confused about the apparent continuous tense.
Can someone help me understand, because "हम आज सड़क पर खड़े हैं" really (to me) looks like "We stand on the road today".
I will give 10 lingots to whomever who will really explain this issue.
Great question! The problem here has to do with the difference between how English and Hindi express standing. In English, it's usually seen as an action (like running, walking, etc.), and hence the idea (of standing) is conveyed using a verb, whereas in Hindi, it's seen as a state (like happy, tall, etc.), and hence requires an adjective. This is one of those cases where the same concept is expressed in different languages by different parts of speech.
I am happy. (adj) - मैं ख़ुश हूँ। (adj)
I am running. (ver) - मैं दौड़ रहा हूँ। (ver)
I am standing. (ver) - मैं खड़ा हूँ। (adj)
As a side note, "(हम) खड़े रहे हैं" by itself is a grammatically valid construction and it means "(we) have been standing", although it's highly unlikely that you would ever hear such an expression. The present perfect continuous tense isn't generally used in Hindi and it's almost always the present continuous tense that's used instead. So,
We have been standing since morning. - हम सुबह से खड़े हैं। (Lit: We are standing since morning.)
- 2647
Excellent! Thank you so much for this very clear explanation. Here are my lingot rewards!
But in english 'happy' is also an adjective. Some verbs in hindi can be used as adjectives - how do i know which should be used as such?
'Standing' - from your reply I understand, should only be used as an adjective. But other verbs can also be used in the adjective form and the continuous verb form.
You're right, there are some English verbs that are translated into Hindi as adjectives. It's usually the verbs to stand, to sit and to lie (lay in AE) that fall under this category.
I'm standing. - मैं खड़ा हूँ।
She is sitting. - वह बैठी है।
They are lying. - वे लेटे हैं।
Forget about the -ing for a minute. Take "sit" as the example, first.
मैं बैठा हूँ
हम बैठे हैं
These mean "I am SEATED / We are SEATED" बैठा, बैठे etc are the "perfect" aspect of the verb -- They indicate COMPLETED action. In Hindi, "sit" is either completed or not completed; on or off. Same with "stand." So,
मैं खड़ा हूँ
हम खड़े हैं
I am STOOD / We are STOOD
From what I understand, standing and sitting are not continuous in Hindi because you are not really in the process of doing anything, this is your final state. "Standing" as a process is when you are staning up from sitted position, but after that you can only stand.